Portside

The policy shortens the timespan from when the board approves a union's request for a workplace organizing election to when that election is held to as little as 11 days. Previously, the process often took one to two months. The board formally announced the rule in December and it went into effect April 14.

California poet Charlotte Muse tries to enter the mind of a person capable of committing torture, justifying torture, an issue from the George W. Bush era that refuses to fade away.

Max Blumenthal, whose book The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza allows the young men and women of Gaza to speak, offers a gripping and unembellished look at the misery on the ground in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli government’s homicidal Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, the third war in this tiny stretch of land in the last six-and-a-half years.

The massive $3.2 trillion destruction in financial value hasn’t sparked a broader financial crisis in China — an illustration of how China’s financial system is different from other major powers. While the People’s Bank of China has sufficient firepower to reverse a crash of several trillion dollars (far more than most other countries), China’s financial system is also comparatively isolated relative to both global finance and China’s own domestic population.

The national organizing day, which featured more than 3,500 events and house parties across the country, centered around a technological infrastructure that uses text-messaging sign-ups and a deep database of volunteers. Attendees at the house parties were asked to text a number to opt in and show interest.

In anticipation of their current contracts expiring on August 1st, CWA and IBEW recently announced that an overwhelming majority of their members voted to authorize a strike in case labor and management fail to reach fair contracts.

A Shell icebreaker in Portland turned back Wednesday, avoiding a showdown with protesters dangling from a bridge. The company hasn't announced its next move.

A dispatch from the inaugural gathering of a proudly diffuse, rapidly growing, hyper-local movement for black lives.